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From today’s editorials: A makeover of Townsend Park looks designed to keep people out. What’s the sense in that?

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As we look at the plans for Townsend Park, we’re reminded of those people-friendly signs that say, “Keep off the grass.”

Perhaps Townsend Park’s caretakers can come up with something in that vein.

How about, “Move along, folks; move along”?

Or, “Enjoy our park, if you can”?

Or what about, “Put down the picnic basket, and walk away”?

We understand the Central Avenue Business Improvement District’s and the city of Albany’s frustration that the park has been a haven for the homeless and drunks, who don’t always follow the maxim that one should leave a place cleaner than one found it.

And drinking and intoxication, sleeping on benches or relieving one’s self in a public place hardly create a friendly environment. For many, it’s intimidating.

None of these concerns are new. Townsend Park has been a symbol and a focal point of the city’s homeless problem for decades.

But the planned makeover of the park isn’t the right answer. In trying to make making Townsend Park less gritty, the BID and the city are in danger of making it positively inhospitable for just about everyone.

The wooden benches are gone, and the planned new metal seating, with no backs, looks about as inviting as a slab of coral.

The possible removal of the central pedestrian path would eliminate what little sense of escape there is now on this tiny green urban island, and instead put park visitors on the edge of — take your pick of scenic highway — Central Avenue, Washington Avenue or Henry Johnson Boulevard.

We appreciate the BID’s commitment to caring for and improving Townsend Park, and for working to do it all without taxpayer funds. We appreciate, too, that the organization wants the park to be part of an environment that encourages people to frequent the area and shop.

But this isn’t a suburban shopping mall, where shoppers are subject to the whims of management when it comes to who’s welcome and who’s not, what constitutes acceptable behavior, dress and even speech and what doesn’t.

The park is a public place. It belongs to the rich, the poor, the perfectly mannered and the rough around the edges.

There are better ways to deal with the situation in Townsend Park. If there is illegal behavior, the city should enforce its laws and ordinances. Not selectively, but fairly and consistently.

And even before the city starts writing summonses or making arrests, it could try just a more frequent police presence in the park. That alone might send a strong enough message that yes, Townsend Park belongs to everyone, but no, it isn’t some open air man cave.